Let's Leave This Out
by Morgana
Summary: An Animorphs/original crossover featuring my forefront character, Morgana Smith. Although she will not appear until later chapters, more about her life can be found in The Griffinqueen.
1. Enmer

A/N: My Animorphs/original world crossover. I didn't notice until I was typing it up that Chapter 1 is in third person limited instead of first person like the rest of the story. It works so well this way, though, that I don't feel like changing it. 

"Let's Leave This Out"

**Chapter 1:**   
_Enmer_

"Here it is, Visser." 

Enmer 5223 couldn't stop his host's jaw from trembling. Stupid scientist. Never could believe that someone would take advantage of his theories. The man cringed inside his own mind, knowing that he had, by his knowledge, just unleashed a terrible evil upon not just one world, but many... 

Enmer loved to terrorize this pathetic human. He had been chosen because of his firm hand. The superiors told of this host's great likeliness to rebel, but Enmer had searched the professor's mind and found only cowardice. Obviously his superiors were wrong about Dr. Manuel Bythera's willpower. 

But not about his brainpower. The man's research and theories could advance humans several millennia in cosmic development if another understood their intricacies. Enmer scoffed. Bythera was though a fool and faker by his own race, only making the cause of Enmer's race easier. 

"Thank you, 5223." The Visser took the device from Enmer's hands, smiling down at the metal like she had just received a new toy and not the most powerful weapon ever made. "Your promotion to sub-visser will be duly noted." 

Sub-visser! Enmer had given universal domination to the Yeerks and he would be named a _sub-visser_?! 

He worked his host's unwilling jaw. "Visser," he pleaded, "surely..." 

"Dismissed, 5223," came the visser's sharp command. Enmer left in disgust, unable to watch his superior gloat over _his_ work that _she_ would get credit for. 

Enmer walked his host into the apartment. A split second later, the swift coup ended, and the body Enmer had controlled for so long had won. Except one freedom: hearing. 

"Yes, slime," the real Dr. Bythera whispered, "you'll hear your death sentence." 

Enmer's helpless body crouched, unable to leave and relinquish his last tenuous hold on his host - no, his former host. 

"After you handed over the device, you thought this was all over. You let your guard down, Yeerk, and you'll pay with your life." Bythera paused thoughtfully. "I'll love the screams as you starve." 

Crazed, no longer rational, Enmer tried to abandon his host and get away. Bythera easily plucked up the helpless slug. 

"On second thought, I have better things to do than hang around for three days," the professor stated calmly. "Goodbye, Enmer." His soft, seemingly absent-minded voice never betrayed the cold, hard will that could totally deceive a Yeerk, that could seem to be other than it was even to one that had access to every tiny bit of Bythera's mind... theoretically. Now Enmer saw his doom: underestimating. 

Blind, panicked, unable to believe, Enmer knew only one thing. He was about to die. 

The end came in a sea of pain. 


	2. Cassie

**Chapter 2:**   
_Cassie_

I shoveled some more cereal into my mouth. I had to finish eating quickly, before my mom roped me into another shopping trip or something. Saturday mornings I can usually get a few hours to myself, to think about normal kid problems and joys. At least, try to keep my mind of what I've become. 

It's a hard adolescent life. Homework, chores, friends, stopping alien invasions... 

Lately, I haven't been able to keep my mind off the Yeerks. Okay, so most people would pay attention to the problem of evil parasitic slugs trying to take over Earth, but now it's always popping up. I can't scrub cages hard enough to clear away Hork-Bajir. When people talk, a cynical little voice in my head cuts in with scathing comments and morbid observations. Before, I could lock away the life of an Animorph and concentrate on the life of Cassie, in the way most everyone can. You can forget anything, if you want to badly enough. 

Except it hasn't been enough these few weeks. I feel like every time the phone rings it'll be another meeting in the barn, another mission a wolf barely limps out of, ducking behind something and becoming a normal girl who'll have more screaming nightmares in a few hours... 

"Good grief, Cassie, don't inhale your food," my mom said from across the table. Her eyes followed my spoon's rapid movement: to the mouth, pick up more, back again... 

I swallowed hard. "I'm really hungry," I lied. She expected it. 

"Well, if you're growing again, we might have to get you some new clothes." 

_Or maybe I won't need new clothes, Mom. Maybe my luck'll run out in battle and you'll never see me again. Or maybe you'll see my body, with something else controlling it so well you'll never know the difference. Until it's too late._

See what I mean? 

I grunted in response to my mom's unspoken question, my mouth too full for the "No, I don't want to go shopping." I knew that she didn't either, really. The periodic new clothes are a mother thing. 

She dropped the subject and opened the newspaper. 

Wait! 

My spoon stopped dead on its way up. 

"Search for missing professor continues," a smallish headline proclaimed. My gaze searched for details. "Manuel Bythera's disappearance seems complete," the article continued. "No clues have been found. Even Bythera's briefcase is gone." 

Too clean. 

I smelled Yeerk. 

But a second later and I had dismissed it, going back to my cereal. 

Later that day, I stole out the back door. 

I'd started thinking. Maybe the trick for peace wasn't trying to forget the Animorphs. Maybe it was enjoying being one for a gift. 

Once I reached the cover of the woods, I stowed my jeans and T-shirt. Half-consciously, I slipped into one of my favorite morphs: horse. 

But as I galloped, the wind singing in my ears, the pure exhilaration couldn't keep my mind off Bythera's disappearance. I couldn't explain my hunch, yet somehow it wouldn't go away. There was only one way to find out if it was right. 

I sighed inside and pounded my hooves back toward home. 


End file.
